


Where the poppy grows

by Sylindara



Series: basketballpoetsociety Team Battle 2014 [11]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bleach, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1847734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylindara/pseuds/Sylindara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yet another world where Himuro falls behind their genius.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the poppy grows

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this takes place during the White Invasion or something.

Himuro likes the 9th Division. They don't look down on him for being an urchin from District 70, who didn't even go through the Academy before being thrown into the Gotei 13. Sure, his squad captain's a bit of a pushover, the vice and third-in-command a bit too fond of teasing, and his partner a bit too…too everything. But he appreciates them all the same.

Which is why Himuro doesn't even think before he is charging towards the arrancar, zanpakutou sliding easily out of her sheath. "Dance! Hyoumuryuu!"

She follows his mandate, icy chains swirling around the target once, twice, before shattering under the reiatsu. Himuro hurriedly calls her back to him, trying to brace himself for impact. It never comes. Instead, Murasakibara is suddenly standing in front him, his reiatsu blocking everything.

"Crush, Tsuchigami," Murasakibara says evenly, with not quite the same carelessness as usual. His zanpakutou towers above them for a single heart-stopping moment, and then it's swooping down with a sharp whistle, pounding a crater deep into the ground radiating out from the head of the warhammer that is Tsuchigami's shikai form.

Out of the corner of Himuro's eye, Okamura shouts, "Endure-" but is cut off before he can finish. Only the timely intervention of Fukui and Liu stop him from being run through.

Not that the situation is any better on their end. Himuro can tell from the reiatsu that Tsuchigami's attack wasn't enough. So can Murasakibara, who frowns a little. "Bankai," he drawls decisively.

It'd been drilled into Himuro, again and again when he first entered the 9th Division and was given Murasakibara as a partner, just how amazing he is. One of the top five students of the Academy, all five being able to release their bankai without even having graduated. There's more to the story than that, Himuro can tell, but it's not time to cash in on their trust yet, and Himuro leaves the questions be. But from his own meditations with Hyoumuryuu, he understands just how difficult it must have been, and just how much faith Murasakibara must have with Tsuchigami to be able to manage it.

Watching Murasakibara swing through the arrancar like flies, Himuro can feel the poisonous envy creeping through his body. Hyoumuryuu never says anything, but Himuro knows that will never be him. He will never reach that pinnacle.

But for now, there're other things to worry about. Himuro rushes behind Murasakibara, picking off the arrancar that had managed to survive Tsuchigami's attacks. Okamura, Fukui, and Liu join him; all three with their shikai out and ready to cover Murasakibara at a moment's notice. Get through this first, and _then_ be depressed over not being good enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Himuro’s zanpakutou is written with the kanji for ice mist and dragon (氷霧竜), there’s no real reason beyond I want to and I couldn’t not give him an ice dragon zanpakutou. Murasakibara’s is written with the kanji for hammer and protect (槌守) with the pronunciation as a pun on ‘god’ (kami) because Thor’s Hammer.


End file.
